Friday, June 30, 2017

Can you imagine yourselves without food and water for few hours? The mere thought itself is daunting right. During the end of the summer vacation in the hot summer month, we knew that the month of Ramadan was coming. When we think about Ramadan, the only one thing to remember is fasting. We need to get up in the early morning around 3.15 AM for a light breakfast. The deadline time to eat and drink will end by 4 to 4.15 AM. The whole day we need to fast till 6.40 PM with no intake of food and water. The fasting period is challenging even for adults. But the essence of the fasting teaches everyone patience and endurance. When millions of people go hungry every day because of their economy, war and other reasons, this is a period to fast by purpose and expressing our solidarity with the people around the world.

So as expected the fasting period arrived with a great beginning. Since we have to eat the pre-dawn meal before we begin the fasting I asked my elder son who is around 11 yrs to join us. He woke up with great difficulty and on top of that asking him to eat anything in the morning was really challenging. The very first day, he did the fasting for us and with a little frustration. Few days passed and he was continuing the same but with less interest. Because, when he sees any yummy food in the day time he will think to himself, "Why did I, do the fast man"?. He carried on for the next few days.

His school reopened for the next academic year. As he is entering the 6th grade, his school timings have got changed and he had to get up early in the morning. It was a difficult phase for him and the whole family. We were slowly transitioning to the new schedule. I told him, "Honey since the schedule is so early if you like to leave the fasting, you can quit and focus on the studies". He said, "Maybe, let's see". So the first day of school he was on fasting. In the evening I was expecting a frustrated son. To my surprise, he came with a broad smile and said, "I did it successfully". He came to the home with no fuss. Next day, again I reiterated on the decision to fast. He stood strong and said that he wanted to continue the same. I was a little surprised. He continued relentlessly with no further frustration or funny faces. When I counted the number of days he fasted, it stood for 29 days out of 30 which is a huge leap from the last year.

It was a great moment to cherish as I could see a great difference from last year to this year. His sheer determination and a little encouragement from us helped him to accomplish the goal. What I initially thought was not possible was made possible by him. As parents, we may think too much from the children's perspective on anything related to their goals and their ability to attempt certain attributes of life. I realized a little motivation and patience can bring our children up to the speed of our expectation without harming their innate freedom. It may be fasting for my son, but it may be a different scenario for your son or daughter. All we need to do is holding on their energy levels in their peak performance which is possible in all aspects of life. It is all in our hands to make anything from impossible to possible. All excuses from our end can be wrapped up and put in a corner and let that sleep forever.

Thursday, June 15, 2017

The lush green fields, tall brown hills, and clouds trespassing them are a delight to witness. These are not mere words but the true picture of my village in Kanyakumari district. Whenever there is a need to visit my village, I feel double delighted as I love to be in the warmth of Mother Nature and also enjoy the peaceful weather. Nature never fails to amaze me. This summer too, there was a necessity to visit as I had to conduct multiple workshops in the schools in and around the city. So it was an extended vacation.

Gradually I finished my workshops and was looking forward accomplishing the next task awaiting me. We have a large farmland which was completely ignored due to the failure of monsoons. We had to nourish the field with a good amount of fertile soil. Since it was summer and dry, even officials were showing the green flag to take sand from the drought-stricken ponds in the mood of cleaning them before the monsoon arrives. We identified the right contractors and discussed with them on executing the job within a short period. Everything was decided and the work proceeded.

Every day the trucks start loading from a nearby pond around 6.30 AM and finish the work by 7.00 PM. There were many trucks assigned for this job. Every day I go there with my son to keep a note on their arrival time and also the number of loads dumped on the farmland. We also made sure to get their signatures at the end of each day. This continued for few days and soon we became thorough of their schedule.

We used to relax during their lunch break and on one such occasion, my son was turning the pages of the note and was quite surprised to see that a particular truck driver has been dumping more loads compared to all the other trucks. After the lunch break, he kept a watch on the specific truck. This truck driver was the first one to operate after the lunch break and he finished it in style and went. I keenly started noticing the driver. He did not bother to look anywhere. All I could see was a strong passion in his eyes. He focussed only on his job and nothing else. Rest of them took so much time in getting down from the driver seat to finishing their work. Rain or shine he was working with unstoppable spirit. My son got inspired by the particular truck driver. Also, he worked happily without any stress. I could see a smile on his face during the entire period. There was no frustration or whining as others normally do.

I was surprised by his work ethic which I have usually witnessed in a corporate environment. He made me realize it does not matter whether you are a CEO of a multinational company or a normal truck driver all you need to show is commitment and passion towards your work and execute it in style. It is the passion that makes us a powerful person. If we have a goal in place we need to work till it is reached, or else it will never become a reality. We always come with excuses to escape from anything we could not achieve. We blame the bad weather, heavy traffic or the bus which we missed for our late coming. Any small issue can make us frustrated. But if we keep all those silly issues aside and follow our passion, definitely we can become the most powerful person at the end of the day and inspire anyone around us.